Asked by: Lord Kempsell (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what proportion of the central Government administrative estate has installed smart meters.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
Within the Government Property Agency managed estate of 65 sites, 100% of these are confirmed to have smart meters installed. Data for other sites would need to be provided by the utility provider or by Departments managing those sites.
The transition to a more flexible energy system plays a vital role in decarbonising the Government office portfolio. Smart meters are one simple step on this journey and that is why one of the work streams identified for investment by Government Property Agency is the adoption of programmes to install smart meters and ensure automatic meter readings across their portfolios.
Asked by: Lord Kempsell (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many designated smoking and vaping areas are currently located within the central Government administrative estate.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
Within the Government Property Agency managed estate there are 6 designated smoking and vaping areas. These are at the following GPA locations:
10 South Colonnade
Whitechapel Building
70 Whitehall
Leicester
Stoke on Trent
Mold
These are either legacy arrangements or provided by the superior landlord for all tenants.
Asked by: Lord Kempsell (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government to provide an update on the principles or guidelines that are currently in place for the design and execution of public consultations by central Government; and whether the Government holds a cross-departmental register of all consultations across departments and their public bodies.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The UK Government has a set of consultation principles which give guidance to government departments and other public bodies on the principles they should adopt for engaging with stakeholders on developing policy and legislation.
These principles encourage policy makers to consider what they are seeking to achieve through any consultation when determining when, with whom and how to consult. The guidance directs policy teams to design consultations on a case-by-case basis to best engage the cohorts of relevance to the subject of the consultation and gather the best possible information to assist with policy development. The consultation principles were last updated in 2018 and are published on gov.uk at the link below:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/consultation-principles-guidance
A list of policy papers and consultations is also published on gov.uk at the link below:
https://www.gov.uk/search/policy-papers-and-consultations
Asked by: Lord Kempsell (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of recent comments by the President and government of Argentina regarding the future status of the Falkland Islands.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
The UK is committed to upholding the Falkland Islanders' right of self-determination: only they can decide their own future. As the Foreign Secretary made clear on his recent visit to the Falkland Islands, as long as the Islanders wish to remain part of the UK family, there can be no discussions on sovereignty. The UK looks forward to developing a strong and constructive relationship with Argentina where we can agree to disagree politely on the issue of the Falkland Islands, but restart mutually beneficial co-operation on areas of shared interest.
Asked by: Lord Kempsell (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of progress on their Shared Services Strategy, and in particular whether this has delivered cost savings for the taxpayer; and what plans, if any, they have to provide an update on the current and future work of Government Shared Services.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
Launched in March 2021, the Shared Services Strategy for Government aims to modernise the back office of government, enabling significant efficiency gains in critical business services such as HR, finance and commercial.
There are now nineteen departments working together in five clusters that will form the shared service centres. Cluster shared service centres are all expected to be live in the next eighteen months. All departments will join a shared service centre by 2028 as current contracts expire to ensure value for money.
Two of the five clusters are up and running, Overseas has realised over £120m in benefits so far and is now looking to expand and go further around automation to realise further efficiencies. The Minister of Defence is looking to move beyond the current civilian HR system to incorporate the military. The remaining three clusters all have initial approval and funding to go to the market. They are finalising procurements for technology and services and will bring business cases for approval in the coming months.
Clusters estimate that all departments using shared services centres will reduce annual running costs by 20 per cent. Overall they currently estimate that the Strategy will realise more than £3bn of benefits over fifteen years. Direct cost savings are only one element of these benefits. Faster, automated and standardised systems will enable significant timesavings for Civil Servants and general efficiency gains across departments. The clustering model will also make future procurement cheaper and give more buying power than departments have on their own.
During the next six months we expect clusters to submit business cases for approval, continue procurement and ultimately sign contracts.
Asked by: Lord Kempsell (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they routinely publish the details of grants and programmes referred to the Complex Grants Advice Panel for expert advice, and if not, whether they will consider doing so.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The details of the grant schemes referred to the Complex Grants Advice Panel are not routinely published and there are no plans to publish them. Many of the grant schemes that the Panel reviews are in the early stages of design and development. Some do not go ahead.
As part of the transparency agenda, the Government grants management function collates and publishes data on grant schemes and awards from all government departments annually to show how public funds are spent through the grants funding mechanism. This data is published on gov.uk in March each year (https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/government-grants-data-and-statistics). The data for 22/23 will be published on 21 March 2024.
Asked by: Lord Kempsell (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what data they hold on physical attendance, for working days from Monday to Friday inclusive, by officials at offices based at the Darlington Economic Campus across all departments with a presence there; and whether they will publish that data.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton
The Government Property Agency manage access to all DEC campus buildings, and routinely provide data to departments through a combination of access pass data and space booking.
Cabinet Office publish data on attendance in the form of Headquarters Occupancy data, but this data is not broken down per-department on a building-by-building basis.
Asked by: Lord Kempsell (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they intend to increase funding and resource to the Counter Fraud Profession and counter-fraud function to fight fraud (1) against His Majesty's Government, and (2) in the wider public sector.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The government launched the Public Sector Fraud Authority (PSFA) in 2022, and a key principle was that it should be expert-led. The PSFA is developing the capability of public servants in dealing with fraud through the Government Counter Fraud Profession. The standards and guidance that the Function creates, led from the PSFA, must be used in central government, and can be used more widely in the public sector and beyond. Since its inception in 2018, GCFP membership has expanded to over 7000 members beyond central government, including policing and local government.
The government is proactively seeking to find and prevent more fraud in the system and has invested an extra £1bn in tackling fraud and error since Autumn 2021 across government. This included £24.7m funding over three years to support the creation of the PSFA, building on lessons learned in the management of fraud risk and loss in the pandemic.
The PSFA regularly engages with Cabinet Office and HMT Ministers and Parliament, via the Public Accounts Committee, on its work and progress against its published mandate. In addition, the PSFA further engages with, and reports to, the National Audit Office.
In order to maintain its commitment to transparency, the PSFA publishes annual plans and annual reports. Last year the PSFA updated Parliament through a Written Ministerial Statement and by depositing a copy of the 2022-2023 Annual Report in the Library of both Houses.
Asked by: Lord Kempsell (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have further plans to reform or improve controls around high exit payments in the public sector, and whether they are considering reintroducing a cap on very high public sector exit payments.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton
The Government maintains its commitment to ensuring that public sector exit payments are fair and proportionate to employers, employees and taxpayers. We continue to look at different options to tackle large exit payments and consulted on introducing additional controls in 2022. The Government is considering the responses to this consultation and will publish a response in due course.
Asked by: Lord Kempsell (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have identified any current functions of the Biometrics and Surveillance Camera Commissioner that will not be transferred to the Investigatory Powers Commissioner under the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill; and if so, what plans they are making to continue those functions in the future.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 sets out the functions of the Biometrics and Surveillance Camera Commissioner. Broadly speaking they are to promote compliance by police with the rules on DNA and fingerprints, and to promote good practice by police and local authorities in the use of surveillance cameras respectively.
Overall, the responses to the public consultation on data reform in 2021 indicated that oversight in these areas was crowded and confusing and there was support for simplification. In response the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill abolishes both posts but transfers the Biometrics Commissioner’s casework functions to the Investigatory Powers Commissioner’s Office.
A number of other bodies already operate in this space and will continue to do so. This includes the Information Commissioner’s Office, which amongst other things regulates and promotes good practice by all organisations’ in their use of biometrics and surveillance cameras, including police and local authorities; the Forensic Science Regulator, which ensures that the provision of forensic science services across the criminal justice system is subject to an appropriate regime of scientific quality standards; the Forensic Information Database Strategy Board, which oversees use of the police DNA and fingerprint databases; the College of Policing, which sets requirements, accredits, quality assures and delivers learning and professional development for policing; His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services, which independently assesses the effectiveness and efficiency of police forces; the Independent Office for Police Conduct, which investigates the most serious complaints and conduct matters involving the police, and sets the standards by which the police should handle complaints; the Equality and Human Rights Commission, which regulates compliance with equality and human rights law; and the British Standards Institute, which develops British Standards.